


The Return of Cthulhu

by nitrofire



Category: LOONA (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Lovecraft Fusion, Gen, Horror, Lovecraftian Monster(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:47:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26767519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nitrofire/pseuds/nitrofire
Summary: When an urban exploring trip ends up with Hyejoo, Yerim, Yeojin and Chaewon getting their hands on a mysterious book meant to be sealed away, chaos ensues after a page from the book is read.(Or, how to accidentally summon a Great Old One)A HP Lovecraft inspired Loona AU
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	1. Chapter 1

“I can’t believe I let you three talk me into this!” Hyejoo grumbles, glancing warily in both directions as Yerim fumbles with the padlock on the door, using a paperclip to pick the aforementioned padlock.

“Hey, where’s your sense of adventure?” Chaewon grins, keeping a look over her shoulder for the housekeeper of the mansion they were trying to sneak into, earning an eye roll from Yeojin, who had her eyes in the opposite direction, keeping an eye out.

“Breaking and entering is definitely NOT my idea of adventure.”

-

It all started when Yerim wanted to scout out locations for an update on that urban exploring blog that herself and Chaewon were running. Two hours on Google, plus rifling through records at their college’s library had led them to this one old mansion at the edge of town.

Located in one of the more upscale areas of the city, this particular mansion had belonged to some archaeologist with an interest in the occult, whose name was lost to time amongst the various physical records Yerim and Yeojin had dug through.

The owner had passed on after an unspecified illness that left him mentally and physically weak. With no descendants, the mansion was left to one of the man’s housekeepers who stayed on, rarely making an appearance outside.

Rumours abounded that the housekeeper was secretly a witch of some sort. Some rumors even went as far to say that the archaeologist’s mysterious illness was caused by a hex, or that the aforementioned housekeeper murdered him. But that didn’t deter Yeojin and Chaewon one bit. As no one had seen the housekeeper in years, people then assumed that said housekeeper either quietly passed on or moved out, even as the mansion slowly deteriorated.

Hyejoo initially had some misigivings, insisting that they find another place for their urban exploration mission. But Chaewon and Yerim were like puppies with bones in their mouths whenever their interest in a particular location and subject were piqued, therefore by default Hyejoo, and their junior, Yeojin, were roped into it.

There apparently were no security guards or guard dogs so the urbexer quartet only really had the housekeeper (assuming they were still around) to deal with. Given how large the mansion compound was, evading the housekeeper would be easy enough, or so they thought.

Finding the mansion was easy enough, given that it wasn’t particularly isolated. Getting in was less easy. To avoid prying eyes and with the fact that nearly every gate was chained shut, the quartet had to slip into the woods surrounding it, then find a section of the outer wall that didn’t have barbed wire on the very top of it.

Despite the scenic surroundings, Hyejoo had this feeling that something was off when they arrived at the mansion, telling herself it was just her nerves acting up, after they had scaled the vine-covered outer walls surrounding the compound. Initially brushing it off as her nerves because, well, they were breaking and entering, that feeling that something was off only grew stronger. Hyejoo decides to keep it to herself. The other girls would tell her the same thing she was telling herself anyways.

The mansion was laid out like a horseshoe, according to a copy of the blueprints that Yerim managed to get her hands on. The left side of the ‘horseshoe’ was both a garage and a stable while the right side consisted of a greenhouse and the living quarters for the mansion staff. In the centre of the ‘horseshoe’ was a garden. An overgrown hedge maze surrounding a long dried out fountain.

Hyejoo had been expecting something with a more ‘gothic’ aesthetic, but the mansion itself was pretty modern-looking for its time, when it was built sometime in the 1930’s, reminiscent of the French villas in the postcards that Yeojin’s older sister, Haseul, would send from her trips to Europe.

Yerim had her DSLR at the ready while Yeojin had a small GoPro camera in her hand. The quartet, deciding that going through the left side would make evading the housekeeper easier, if they were still around. Yerim had a collection of paper clips with her, quickly picking the locks on a cluster of chains keeping a side door shut.

As Yerim and Yeojin snap and film away with their cameras, Chaewon notes that while the mansion’s exterior gave it the impression that it was well kept, the garage itself wasn’t, with a thin layer of dust covering everything, not to mention the various gaps in the roofing. As they moved, little motes of dust swirled around, caught in the shafts of sunlight. Hyejoo finds it odd that there were no cars or vehicles of any sort in the garage.

“Probably sold off after the guy died.” Yeojin shrugs.

Stepping back out into the sunlight, the quartet stops at another side door, Yerim wondering aloud why one would need so many chains when even simple police tape would have sufficed.

-

“Aaaaand we’re in!” Yerim slowly pushes the door open after removing the locks and the chains, holding it for the other three before she enters after, theatrically glancing left and right before shutting the door.

The interior of the mansion itself was as dusty as the garage itself. It was as if the occupants had just suddenly got up and left. Hyejoo eyes a lampshade, overgrown with spiderwebs

The curtains over the windows were fully parted but instead of lighting up the hallways, it only really served to deepen the contrast between the light and the shadows.

The whole thing reminds Chaewon and Yerim of all the old castles and manors they’ve read about in various mystery books and short stories. To Yeojin, it was as if they entered an antique store. To Hyejoo (who had spent the previous night watching both Conjuring movies and The Nun,) it felt like they were entering some occult lord’s residence.

“Don’t break anything.” Chaewon is quick to remind the group. “We cannot leave more evidence that we were here than we already have done.”

The quartet makes their way down the halls, keeping low to avoid being spotted through the windows.

Most of the inside was devoid of most furniture, except for the occasional table and bookshelf. The group’s footsteps echoed through the nearly empty passageway, Yerim being quick to remind them all to keep it down. There were two wings in the mansion. The left side where they entered contained a study on the floor above, which according to the blueprint was connected to the library through a passageway. The right wing had the dining area on the ground floor, with a gallery of sorts above it.

“You know for a place that has a caretaker, this looks surprisingly run down…” Hyejoo speaks up a while later.

“All the better for pictures.” Yerim shrugs as she runs through the photos she already took on the way in. “Ooh there’s so much good content. Our blog’s definitely gonna blow up!”

“Is that the only thing you care about? This place really gives me the creeps.” Yeojin rolls her eyes before swiping the blueprints from Yerim’s pocket. “Rest of the main mansion is going to be empty… We might find something of interest in the library upstairs.”

“Hey that’s what we’re here for, remember?” Yerim grins, to which Yeojin rolls her eyes. The group had arrived at the mansion’s main hall, with two staircases flanking an entrance to the halls behind another set of doors, also chained shut.

“Okay here’s the plan. I’ll go upstairs with Hyejoo, the rest of you see what you can find down here. Meet us at the library in 10 minutes. Oh and uhh you two, try not to let the caretaker catch you.”

“Screw you, Yerim!”

“Yeojin, Haseul isn’t here. It’s okay to say the F-word…”

-

“Hasn’t anyone noticed that almost every access point leading into this place has been chained shut?” Hyejoo says a while later, as Yerim runs through the whole rigmarole of picking yet another padlock, holding together a length of chain that secure the library’s twin doors.

“You watch too much horror movies.” Yerim chuckles, her fingers working the paper clip in the lock. “This lock’s probably starting to rust inside… This might take a while.”

“Still. With all this security, it feels less like keeping people out and more like our mysterious housekeeper wanted to keep something in.”

“Come to think of it…” One lock down. Two more to go. “You do have a point. Either way, there’s only one real way to find out, and that’s in this library.”

“Touche.” Hyejoo’s gaze darts from the top of the stairs to both passages flanking the library, watching for anyone that wasn’t Chaewon or Yeojin.

-

“This gives me the creeps.” Chaewon mutters, earning a slight smirk from Yeojin who whips out her phone, snapping pictures of the entrance to the dining hall, catching the dust-caked table in the centre of the shot.

“You sure were talking a lot of smack about how your blog’s gonna get big before we came here. Where’s that bravado of yours now?”

“Shut up, squirt.”

Yeojin and Chaewon flank the main dining table. Only the tablecloth remained, though falling apart thanks to moths. Strangely, all the cutlery and crockery were still present, as if awaiting a dinner party that never came. The cobweb-encased candelabra in the centre of the table gave the two girls the impression of a ghostly hand reaching through the table’s wooden surface.

There was a row of windows, just like in the passage they used to enter the mansion proper, but these curtains were just as moth eaten as the tablecloth. Chaewon was hesitant to part the curtains, fearing the mouldering, moth eaten fabric would fall apart in her hands.

Yeojin opens up one of the cupboards, immediately wishing she hadn’t as a flurry of moths fly out, missing her face by an inch. Too surprised to even scream or gasp, Yeojin steps back, landing on her rear and earning a chuckle from Chaewon.

“Very funny eh?” Yeojin shoots Chaewon a death glare as she gets to her feet.

“Okay I’m sorry. Come on, let’s keep exploring.”

-

“Ah finally!” Yerim carefully sets down the chain, attempting to be as quiet as possible before placing the three padlocks aside. Both Yerim and Hyejoo carefully swing open the doors before walking in.

The smell is what hits Hyejoo first. Old books coupled with the musty stench of dampness and rotting wood. It seemed the library itself had been sealed for a long time. Probably long before Yerim and Hyejoo themselves were even born.

From the door, the duo could make out rows and rows of books lining the shelves from the floor too the ceiling. Dust and mold had tainted the wood into various shades of grey and black. Hyejoo could have spent the entire day browsing through the collection but half of the books in the shelves were probably unreadable by now, the damage from moisture probably washing away the ink. That was also assuming the books wouldn’t fall to pieces if handled. The wooden flooring suffered the worst of the damage, with the planks being warped, some to the point of detaching from the flooring underneath.

Hyejoo was reminded of the Moscow Library level from Metro 2033 as she steps in following Yerim’s lead. Yerim reaches into her backpack for a pair of surgical masks, handing one to Hyejoo along with a pair of gloves. With no lights and the windows being boarded up, Hyejoo and Yerim use the lights from their phones as their only source of illumination.

Hyejoo walks up to one of the bookshelves, brushing off some of the dust to reveal a golden strip underneath it. There was some writing, or at least what Hyejoo thinks is writing.

A row of hieroglyphs, were etched on to the strip. Hyejoo struggles to identify the script but the symbols don’t match any of the ancient or occult scripts she’s studied in her Anthropology classes.

P͖̼͔̦̘̙͕̠̘͕̹̪̟̘̯̽̇̇̓ͬ̎̀̿̓ͫ͛͟h̸̸̨̹̣̱̯̜̩̳̟͉͚̾ͤ̌̊̃̓͗͐̇̀'̶̛̲̣̖͇͖̞̯̼͈͉̠̔̽̏̚͜͠ņ̥̰͔̩̪̩̹̺͚̱͇̗̗̙̹̳͂̆ͬ̾ͫ̕͡͞ͅͅͅģ̨̞͙̳̱͍̣̗̗ͫ̄̏̍͒̐̂̊ͅl͓̬̮̞̞̻̞̟̱͈̘̳̼͕̻͙̻̜ͯͯ̃͛̔ͤͨ͂̒ͭ͂̈́́̈́̾̑͆͢͟ư̡̡̬̘̻̮̯͓̟̮̳̭̈̃͂ͨ̚͜į͈͍̙͚̠̹̟̪̫̑̄̄ͤ̊̕͜͠ ̧ͪͪͭ̆͝҉̨̼̘̺͍̖̳͚̠̩̥̝͙ͅm̃ͮ̽ͣͣ͆̍̎ͪ̇ͣ̔̈́̎̽̾̌͗͏̴̪͕̯͔̹͘g̱̥̪͎͎͕͖͙̳̪̙ͮͯ̐ͭ̄͆̃̊̂ͯͤ͗̎͝l̴̢̛̘̝̞̗̰̤̱̻͚͇̫̍͂͆ͩͧ̉̌͑̇̓̈́͝w̡̨̜͙̹̫͙̱̲͉̗̩̥͖̺̫ͥ͑͌̿ͩ̿ͨͫͭ̿̒̑͆ͧ̑ͯͥ̚͟'̸̴̱̗̝̘̰̟̜̜̳̳̎͊͊̄̌ͪ̈̈́̿ͬͅn̴̢̩̙̞̰̹̪̻̲̂ͣ̀̾͝ͅa̡̧̫̙͖̲̙͚̺͇̻̼͗̔͋͛̍̒ͩ͒̅̂̂̚͘͜͡f̴͛͆̀͛̽ͦ͏̶̨̗͕̝͓̘͖̠̯͓͕̩͖͎͢h̵̢̿̈̃̍̃ͨ̑̈͒̚҉҉̸̣͉͓̠̼̺͕͚̦̥̯̞̖͎̪ ̴̡͚͍̹̦̊ͪ̾͊͗ͭ̓͗̂ͦ̐͂ͩͅC̶̸̯̟̤͙̱̽ͧͯ̂͌ͯ̏̈́ͪͧͤ̚͜t͆ͮ̋ͩͣ͗̂ͫͫͤͬ̔̾́ͥ̉҉̙͙͙̟̟͎̗̗̯ͅh̔̾ͮ͌ͦ̓ͩ҉̪̞̟̺̱͙̣̗̱̱͕͠͠u̸̶̩̗̹̘̞̗̤̦̤̯̔ͪ͛̀ͪ͊̐̉͆̔͌̉ͨ͗̏̌̊̚͜l̴̵̴͍͎̰̖̲̞͕̲̲͙̖͇̦̳̘ͫ̆́͂͡h̪̟͍̳̰̑ͤͮͭ͗͌ͦͭ͐͒̌̂̉̋͟͡͞ų̳̰͔̦̩͇͓̬̖̦̜̮͓͇͚̱̺ͩͯ́ͦ̎͑̈́̆͜͝͞͠ ̨̡͈͖̠͖̘̻̞͙͙̠̣͉͇͈͈̪̱͖ͥ̄̉͊ͭ͒̍̌ͭ̿̚ͅR̶̯͍̣̗̯̝̱̮̘̦̪̪͈̯͇̅ͧ͗̆̈̃͊ͥ̊̚̚̕̕͠'̶̸̢̫͉̖͙̜̞̰̥̄̃̒̈́͑͗ͯ̈́ͩ̒ͬ͟l̎ͩ͂ͦͦ̔ͣ̇ͪ͊̋̂͛́́̅ͤ͏̯̜̬̫̥̜̦͉͞y͕̤̰͖̮̰͖͉̘̜̱̟̾ͨ͐̾ͬ̍͛͗ͯ͐͋̅ͪ̇̉̿͌̇͆ę̼͔̣̺͎̦͈̣̼͎̗͔̦̬̺̪̲͈̦͛̓̓̉ͣ͑̄͑͌͋̔̔ͨ͒̊̅͆͜h̸̡̢̭̥͙̱͎̼͓̺̼̤͚̘̦̊̽ͣͯ̒̀̈͗͆͊͛̊̚͘ ̶͗ͥ̀͐̅͠͏̸̗̩͉̺͓̖̮͔͕̟w̵̲̗̥̩͔̽̈͐̅̽̇̇̄̂ͪͫͦ̔̇̈́̐ͭ͌ģ̹̻͍͎̱̺͍͖͚̙̝̮̼̖͔̝̖̔ͨ͒̒͆̈́̔̐̇͊̾ͦ̈̚̕ȧ̔͒ͣ̆ͬ̃̉̽ͮ̑͛̏̏ͥ̇͌҉̴҉̥͓̬̱̯̰̩̻͔̪̦͟h̬͎̫̲̫̪̯̠̣̫͎̟͊ͣ̅ͮ̊̿ͫ̓ͣͦ͌̉͌̔͋̔̉̎͜͢͢͞'̈́͑̾̑̂̌̉͋̍̓͗̽̇̑̋ͦͣ͏̶̗͇̲͙͍̣͉̜̫̗͍̣̕͜n̵̡͙̻͚̟͚̱̱͍̟̺̥͎͚̮͙̻̜̉ͯ͗́̂̃ͮͪͧͭ́̈́̍ͭ͆ͮ̚͟͝͞a̧̡͈̭̻̹̹̭̫͋̿̄̐̄̑ͧ̔̓ͬ̈́̉ͮ͘ḡ̶̡̢͉͖͎̯̦̙̦̠͇̣̦̹̥͓̣̬̿͊ͭ̃̓͘l̵̫̟̬̱̯͚̗͍̣̩̺͓̬̣̙̻̘̏ͭͣͬͥ̄̉̐̑̌͡ͅ ̸̡͙̯̜͚͎͖̜̻͕̼̭̩̞͔͔̣̠ͭ̿ͤ́ͯ͛̕͢͢f̷̮̟̦̭̗̥̻̬͕͓̙̲̻̫̽̾̆̄̀ͭ̾͆ͣ̓͂̑̍ͦ̚͢ͅhͫ͂̋ͦͤ̈ͭ̔̆̈́͊̏̒̏͑̍̈͂̿͞҉҉̨̼̯̮̺͔̖̼͈̰̰̮̟̫͔̭̪͎͞t̸̳͈̭̮̟̦̪͙̩̼̪͎̝͎̑̂ͣ̓ͅa̴̸̧̦̪̗̣̋͋́͛ͨͦ̓͂̎̈́ĝ̶̨̧̩͍̺͈̲̙̫̝̬̪̥̜̠̩͔̹̩̈́ͯͯ͑̎̎̍ͫ͐̐̿́̏ͣ͜͞ͅn̡̊̇ͯ̐̽ͮͬ͊̀̋̓̐ͭ͜͜͡҉̮̠͖̫̬̩̬̰

The symbols were more… alien, as if they were meant to be read and understood by tongues and minds that were not human. Looking at them gave Hyejoo a sense of unease, quickly becoming lightheaded. Her head spins, and spins, and spins until Hyejoo feels like she’s about to faint

Immediately she looks away and the sensations disappear, replaced by the muffled clicking of Yerim's lockpicking efforts.

“Earth to Son Hyejoo!” Yerim calls out, standing in front of a barricade comprised of various pieces of furniture.

“So that’s where all the junk in the lobby went… Alright let’s go.” Hyejoo runs over, lifting a bunch of small side tables aside, clearing a path just wide enough for herself and Yerim to pass through.

As was the apparent norm. the doors to passage that linked the library to the owner’s study were also chained shut with even more padlocks. Yerim instinctively hands the camera over to Hyejoo, who proceeds to snap away with the camera’s flash on while Yerim goes to work picking the locks.

“You know… I’m thinking you might be right. That mysterious housekeeper seems determined to keep this place sealed...” Yerim pauses, turning to show Hyejoo one of the locks, with arcane symbols on it that looked more of Earthly origin, compared to the alien hieroglyphs on the shelves.

Hyejoo could make out seven symbols on the lock. A central orb, surrounded by six others. The symbols in the surrounding orbs looked familiar enough to Hyejoo.

“I know these. Remember Proffessor Jung’s occultism class? The one on that sorcery order… the Ordo Arcana? Supposedly these symbols represent the 7 elements of the Ordo Arcana.” The central symbol, that looked like a cross between a compass’s windrose and the chaos star, had an engraving in its centre of two moons, one in proper orientation and the other canted 90 degrees. The other symbols, denoted by hanja-esque pictograms were much easier to identify.

“Okay these are definitely the symbols for the 7 elements of the Ordo Arcana; The six outer symbols represent Earth, air, fire, water, light and darkness. The central symbol, without the moons, is the Ordo Arcana’s representation of aether, the element that binds all 6, thus making it the 7th element.”

“And these twin moons….” The realisation hits Yerim as soon as the words come out of her mouth. 

“Are a sealing symbol. These locks were blessed by mages of the Ordo Arcana.” Hyejoo confirms, as both her and Yerim shoot each other a fearful look. “Looks like something was indeed meant to be sealed away…”

“I shouldn’t have dragged you and the girls here. You and Yeojin were right, this was a bad idea.”

“No. we’ve come too far. Might as well open this thing. Whatever it is they were attempting to seal is probably long dead by now.”

“Good point.” Yerim nods before going back to work on picking the rest of the locks. Hyejoo turns around as she hears footsteps. Squinting, she makes out the forms of Yeojin and Chaewon, catching their breaths after running all the way up to the library.

Chaewon had gone to check out the greenhouse and the servants’ living quarters, finding both uninhabited. Or so she thought. And as soon as she stepped back out, she heard a rustling in the hedge maze, catching sight of something moving in between the hedges.

Chaewon didn’t spare a second to look back, sprinting inside while grabbing Yeojin by the hand, dragging her all the way back upstairs to the library.

“Girls, whatever you’re doing, better make it quick. Someone else besides us is here!”


	2. Chapter 2

  
“What do you mean you saw someone in the maze? I thought you said the servants’ quarters were empty?” Hyejoo snaps, trying to keep her voice as low as she could.

“I swear they were!” A panicking Chaewon throws her hands up. “I went in and out through a window. Looked everywhere and I swear it was empty!”

“You sure it wasn’t a stray animal?”

“Damn it Hyejoo, that thing was too tall to be an animal.”

-

_The dormitory that served as the servants’ quarters was indeed as empty as Chaewon had described. Two floors, with twelve rooms, split into two rows on each floor. The bottom floor was strangely cleared of furniture, used to blockade the domitory’s entry doors, while the top floor was the exact opposite. All the furnishings and fittings were still there, left relatively untouched, covered in the same layer of dust and cobwebs that blanketed everything else in the house._

_The greenhouse, instead of being overgrown like the hedge was lifeless. All the plants on the racks and planters lay shrivelled and dried up. Most of the glass itself was gone, cracked and shattered. Finding nothing of further interest, Chaewon turns back into the dormitory._

_Chaewon exited through the window she entered, only to catch sight of a movement in the hedge maze. The figure moved too fast for Chaewon to identify, but it was definitely too tall to be a dog or a wandering cat. Definitely a human being._

_The quartet were clearly not alone in the mansion._

_And without a second thought, Chaewon runs._

-

“If it was empty, how could someone else be here?”

“M-maybe our mysterious housekeeper is here.”

Silence.

Hyejoo speaks a moment later.

“Okay you two keep watch out here. Yerim and I will check out the study, then we’ll buzz off.”

To which both Yeojin and Chaewon nod before running to take up positions at the library doors, keeping an eye out for the other intruders while at the same time looking for a place to hide

Yerim finishes picking the final lock, carefully prising apart the chains after. Yerim opens the doors and slips through the gap, Hyejoo following suit.

The study felt as if it was more of an occult shrine than an actual study. There was the desk, bookshelves. But then there was the oddly placed ornate candle stands in a circle around the room itself, each emblazoned with the same alien symbols as on the shelves outside.

Yerim and Hyejoo get to work, searching and scouring the study. In the back of the room, over the mantle, was a clay bas-relief. With the same alien symbols carved into it.

In the cente of the bas-relief was what could be vaguely described as a humanoid figure, towering over several smaller human-like figures. The larger figure was like a cross between a human, a dragon and an octopus; a pulpy, tentacled head mounted on a humanoid body, with rather rudimentary-looking dragon-esque wings. Surrounding the figure was what could be described as structures of a Cyclopean origin.

 _The hell is this… thing?_ Hyejoo wonders. She feels drawn to the bas-relief somehow, reaching out, running her gloved fingers over the symbols as her head feels like it’s beginning to spin, hushed voices starting to whisper in the corners of her mind.

A tap from Yerim on Hyejoo’s shoulder breaks Hyejoo out of the beginnings of the trance.

“Check out what I found.” Yerim had picked the locks on the desk’s drawers which were chained up like the doors (Yerim was beginning to think this was some sort of twisted running gag). She had found a sculpture, wrapped in mouldy canvas.

Yerim sets the sculpture down on the table, quickly unravelling the binds on the wrapping. As Hyejoo snaps a few shots of the study’s interior.

It was the same chimera-esque creature from the bas-relief but this one was carved from some kind of stone that both Hyejoo and Yerim struggled to name. It felt like marble, but the surface was black, glossy, with a faint green tinge when Hyejoo held it up to the light. Its pose in the sculpture was reminiscent of the bronze sculpture named The Thinker.

Hyejoo examines the figure as Yerim rifles through the various drawers. Hyejoo somehow feels compelled to look closer at the figure, suddenly realizing that there was another set of the alien hieroglyphs on its base.

I̶̧̢͕̘̖̥͎̻̘̬͒͊̅̾̈́̀̂̀͠ͅä̶̡̟̭̝͚̅̄̃̊͌̕͝͝ ̸̧̝̔̇̀͐̋͋̅̒̿̓̕̕I̷̛̙̖̽͒̈̈́̔̄̊̄͌́̚ä̴̲͒͂͆ ̶̛̗̻͙̩͔̈́̅͆̇̾C̶̨̧͎͚̺̼̝̤͓̲͚̃̈́͋ͅṫ̴͕͉̗͙͗̂͋͐h̶̢̧̘̠̣̼̹̝̣͕͈̭̠͋̈́͒̅̏̓̑̎̉̓̀u̷͇͌́͘ḽ̶̢̣̠̲̱͕̫̥̹̜͋͂̀́͐͒h̸̺̙̮̠̫͈͓̪͉͚́͝u̴̘͍͕̝̣̮̔̏͘̕͝ ̵̧͚̖͚̳͍̖̩̦̼̖̼̓̏͜f̸̦͖̜̩̬́̄͑̅̎̎͊̑͒͝͝͝ẖ̷̛̪̮͓͍͉̯͚̅̓̆̈́͘͝ț̶̡̅̎͌̃͝ȁ̴̡̨̹̫̭̰̼̮̬̲̥̮̉̉̃̈́͗̎͆͝g̸̝͚̊̾͂͂̎͜ņ̶̘͕̟͖̘̯̓͊̑̈́͗̓͝͝͠ ̷̠̳̪̠͓̱͉̜̿̐̒͛͌̄͜͠P̵̢͇̳̎̎̐͌̓̍h̸̳͓̰͙̘̬̿̊̑̄͝'̶̹͑̔͗̽͒̇n̸̨͕̝̻̜̞̺͍͂͆̿̈͒̈̾̽͐ḡ̶̡̭͔̖̱̮̣͆̋͜ͅl̵̨̖̰͉͇̲̙̖͚̮͓̤̍͂̀͝ͅu̷̡̪͖̮̝̥͇̰̝̹̳̼̞͋ḯ̴̗̫͈̼̩͉͇͚̻͈͍̈̂͘͜͝ͅ ̸̧͓̘̫̗͎͓̣̤̳͖͍̆m̸̢̼̻̯̤͉̩̻͍͈̭͉̣̈͂̊͊̽̕g̷̩͔͇̩͙̘̎̓̈͝l̴̡̞̭͛͛̿̾̒̾͋̿̄͝ͅẇ̸̧͙͈͓̺̣̉͋̿͋͜͝'̸̪̠͇͎͖̜̰̀ǹ̸̙̞͍̔̅a̸̛̛̠̗͙̭̫͈͍͎͐̿͆͊̐͂̅̽͘̕f̴̡̛̛̠͎̗͈̰͚̤̗͔͙͉͑̐̾͆̓͑͋̓͝ḧ̶̭͉̲̣̺̻́͒̃͘͝ ̸̡͉̱̝̥̲̰̖̓͂̆̋̿͋̊̔̈́̏́̏C̶͉̞͚̙̺͈̞̙̥͒̆̎̅̈́̓̔͌̕̚͜͝t̴̗̺̦̹̤͔̍̇͂̓̾̊̌ͅḧ̵̨̞̲́̅͌̉̕̚͠ư̵͎͈̼̺̰̹͈̲̺̭̗̞̽̃͋̈͛͌̎͌͝l̶͕̱͆͂͌̊́̈̚̕͝͠ḩ̴̪̼̙̲̫̀̽̈́̊̍͐̾̿̇͘͠ǔ̸͕̤͎̞͓͎̺̹̓͑̚͝ ̶̝̖̊̒̀͊͑̾̈́̆̃̃̏Ŗ̴͔̫̝̯͖̮̻̜̗̰̞̼͋̑̊͗̈́'̷̛͉͉̻̆̈́͒͐̌̒̓̔̆̔̕͠ḻ̷͓͆̅̈́̔̿̋̽͌͌̽̽͜ͅy̸̙͙͇̪̝̭̫͒̕͜ę̷͉̞̩͎̱̠̺̭͕̈́̾̆͒̑̂̒̐͂͠͝ḣ̵̭̫̠͓̯̠̫͈̄͜ ̷̮̤̥͌̈́́͗̂̂͒͘ͅw̴̢̛̛̯̥͕͚͓̼͖̥̩͕̞͒̆̊̋̔͑̇͒͌̅̕ͅg̵̲̟̘̞͍̭̜̪̀̌̆͊̉̕ͅa̸̲̟͈̱͍͎̅͊͋̋͒͒̆h̴̢͓̰̞̱͔͆̅'̷̧̼̜͎̬͇̼̈̌͂͆̎̊̚͜ņ̶̘̻̙͎̙̞̠̼̝̙̼͍̓̒̀̈͝a̶̪͕̅̏̔̇ģ̷̣͖̭̽̃̈́̆̄͌l̶̺̜͉̩̥͈̫͎̬̭̹̖̦̍̈́͒̒̿̄ ̷̩̤̱̟̼̬͐̊͗̿͗̒͛̔͐̕̚f̶͍̯͖̳͑̃̓̄͌̋͐h̴̻͕̺̼͔͔͙͖͍̰͔̋͗͊̑̊́͐̐̓̔̈́͠t̴̻̠̝̱̍̔̓̏̂̉̄̓ă̵̖̝̤͖̘̣͇̲̏̿̐̑̆̓̑̔g̴͖̠̰̯͌͂̈͆̾͌̓̆̒͠ṅ̶͉͓̲͇̤͍̹̤͖̞̭̮̉́̍̀̇͒̆̊͝͠ͅ

Hyejoo stares at the figure, and for a moment, she feels as if the sculpture is making direct eye contact with her. The world starts slowly fading as the voices in the back of her mind return.

And she could have sworn the figure’s eyes flashed a sickly green. Visions of space, of the stars aligning flash across Hyejoo’s mind’s eye, interspersed with images of a city of sorts, with its structures comprised of stone, carved in all sorts of alien geometries. And then a vision of a shadowed behemoth, rising from the waves with its eyes glowing a brilliant red. Yerim rifles through the drawers, taking out folder after folder. Piles of notes, both typed and scibbled. All have the words ‘Cthulhu’ and ‘R’lyeh’ written all over. One note from a folder marked as ‘CTHULHU CULT’ catches her eye.

_“That is not dead which can eternal lie,  
And with strange aeons even death may die.”_

The rest of the following words remain untranslated. Followed by that was a heavily yellowed newspaper clipping from the Sydney Bulletin, dated to 1925. Yerim skims through most of it, but what catches her eye is the mention and description of an alien-looking idol.

The aforementioned idol matched the description of the one that Hyejoo was examining a little too closely. Realizing that there’s not enough time to go through all the files, Yerim compiles them into a single folder, stuffing it into her bag. A safe in the far corner of the study catches her eye.

 _Whatever was in here, they really wanted to lock away._ The safe unsurprisingly was also chained up, with the locks bearing the same arcane markings as the locks to the study’s entrance. Whatever protective spell that was on this would have worn off by now, which was why Yerim could effortlessly pick all seven locks on it.

Yerim cracks open the safe- only to find that sealed inside is a book. Half expecting it to be chained up just like every door in the mansion, she holds up the book, finding that it’s bound by silvery strings that look like they can be cut. The book itself, was not in the ornate Victorian style or the stereotypical patched together skin covering, as were most books one would expect to be sealed away with arcane locks on its containment device.

The book itself was closer to the ‘Death Note’ from the titular anime, bound in black leather, with the word ‘Necronomicon’ along with several occult-looking symbols surrounding a line drawing of the sculpture’s head.  
  


A noise startles Yerim as she’s quickly flipping through the pages, several of them containing sketches of unearthly looking creatures, from masses of tentacles, to winged, tentacled abominations. Whatever text Yerim found, was written in the same alien hieroglyphs as the ones on the sculpture and the bas-relief.

Yerim turns towards the source of the noise, finding a dazed Hyejoo stagger to her feet, with the black sculpture lying on the floor.  
  
“You alright?” Yerim calls out, to which the still-dazed Hyejoo responds with a thumbs up.

“Yeah but my head’s starting to feel a little funny.”  
  


“I think this place is already getting to you.” Deciding enough was enough, Yerim decides to stuff the book into her bag, along with the rest of the files, to study and decipher later at her place, but not before she takes a few pictures of the study, turning off the DSLR after.

“Come on, let’s go get Yeojin and Chaewon.”

-

From a clearing in the overgrown mess that was the hedge maze, a lone woman clad in a hooded jacket scans the mansion grounds, raising an eyebrow as she catches sight of a flash of light coming from the upper floors of the mansion itself.

 _Of all the days for someone to break in, why does it have to be on the day I’m supposed to be off duty…_ The woman lets out an irritated sigh before reaching for her own phone, dialling up a number.

After several rings, the person on the other hand picks up.

“A bit early to be calling me up, don’t you think?”

“Well someone just broke into Dr. Jeon’s mansion. Get your ass down here now. Fetch whoever else is awake. I can’t apprehend these punks alone.”

“…Oh. Crap. Okay I’m on the way.”

“Make it quick. We need to get them before they break into the library.”

-

Yeojin is the first to confirm the presence of the newcomers, hearing the sounds of hurried footsteps, right after the sounds of metal being dropped, followed by the creaking of the main doors.

With no way to warn the others verbally without tipping off the three new intruders, Yeojin decides to warn them by text.

 **Lentil Bean (11:07 a.m.):** _Chaewon was right. There is someone else… three of them. One of them is definitely your mysterious housekeeper._

 **Choerry (11:08 a.m.):** _Crap. Get out of the library before one of them gets here, then find somewhere to hide._

Yeojin slips out first, creeping in the shadows as Chaewon follows, not far behind. A beam of light from a flashlight lances overhead. Both Yeojin and Chaewon duck behind the wall that formed the bannisters, moving on hands and knees as slowly as possible as to not alert the three intruders below as they attempt to sneak into the gallery to hide as the sound of running footsteps get closer and closer.

-

Yerim is thankful she had decided to put her phone on silent as she drags a dazed Hyejoo by her hand out of the study. The first thing Yerim hears is the sounds of footsteps, amplified by the near-empty halls followed by a female voice shouting to search the ground floor.

As Hyejoo gets to her feet, slowly recovering from her daze, a flashlight beam appears from between the library doors before turning around and disappearing. Both Hyejoo and Yerim glance at each other before they wordlessly agree to split up, Hyejoo squeezing herself against the wall in a niche in the study’s passageway entrance while Yerim quickly climbs up on top of one of the bookshelves using a ladder that was rusted in place.

The beam of light reappears as a tall hooded female figure, purple locks of hair visible in the light from under her hood, bursts through the doors, pausing as she scans the area, sweeping the flashlight’s beam over each nook and cranny where a person could be trying to squeeze into to remain out of sight.

Yerim draws in a breath, the only sound she can hear being that of her pounding heart as the figure steps towards the passage leading to the study. A fresh wave of fear overtakes her as she realises that Hyejoo might be the first to be discovered

-

Yeojin and Chaewon pause, hearing the footsteps fade into the distance. Both of them had managed to squeeze into a cupboard in the gallery, which thankfully was not filled with moths. Both of them hold their breaths, Chaewon pinching her own nose shut to hold back a sneeze, which to her relief, never came.

Yeojin catches the form of the second intruder through the gaps in the cupboard doors. And then a flash of light as the intruder walks on.

Someone shouts from downstairs, both Yeojin and Chaewon can’t make out the words but apparently it’s enough for the figure outside to turn around and run back downstairs.

Both Chaewon and Yeojin slowly slip out of the cupboard, slowly creeping down the right staircase. Yeojin can make out the intruder and said intruder’s companion talking just loud enough for them to hear.

“Gallery’s clear. No signs of anyone there. Minji’s gone to check out the bedrooms and the library…”

“You go check out the kitchen and dining rooms. I’ll scope out the parlor. Regroup at the dining room.”

And then silence descends as footsteps fade into the distance.

There’s only 30 feet of space between the two girls and the now open main doors.

“You thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Let’s do it.”

-

Hyejoo feels as if her heart is about to burst from her chest as footsteps approach. The shady woman that had entered the library had quickly turned towards the passage. Hyejoo’s heart beats faster and faster as the figure approaches, the flashlight’s beam almost blinding, in the dimness of the study. The figure is so close, close enough for Hyejoo to catch a whiff of the woman’s perfume.

She closes her eyes, praying the intruder doesn’t notice the sound of her pounding heart.

Her prayers are answered as the woman rushes straight to the study, muttering a stream of muffled profanity as she makes a beeline towards the safe.

Taking the chance, Hyejoo quietly slips out, skulking towards the library doors, nearly running into Yerim, who had quietly climbed down from the bookshelf, somehow without breaking the ladder.

More footsteps come, as the woman’s companions run upstairs. Both Hyejoo and and Yerim slip behind the doors as the three intruders convene in front of the study’s entrance.

“…The punks managed to pick the locks. The Necronomicon is gone. Along with the Sleeper’s idol.”

“No. How? The spells should have prevented this from happening. If only the fools knew what horrors those can inflict… ”

“Ever thought that maybe the spells somehow wore off, genius? I don’t want to shit talk you all but we seemed to lack quite a bit of foresight when we sealed this place.”

“Touche.”

“Enough.” Hyejoo recognises this voice as belonging to the purple haired one. “There is no use in arguing. Right now we need to get the book and the idol back. The thieves may have backtracked. Yoo, you go search the bedrooms. Siyeon, you’re with me. We’ll scope out the paddock.”

“Understood. Going now.”

It doesn’t take Hyejoo long to put two and two together to realise that the trio were Ordo Arcana members. Mages or acolytes, she didn’t know. Whatever the Ordo Arcana wanted with the book and the idol, she did not know either but they seemed to go through quite a bit of trouble to keep them sealed in, with the chains and the blessed locks.

The trio then walk out, one going left towards the bedrooms while the other two head downstairs. Both Hyejoo and Yerim peek out from their hiding places before creeping outside.

The only way out without having to go through the hedge maze was back the way they came. To avoid attracting the attention of the Ordo Arcana duo that were heading towards the paddock, consisting of the garage and the stables, Yerim and Hyejoo would have to use the surrounding hedges as cover.

Yerim pauses to speed-type out a text to Yeojin. She didn’t know if they got out, but Yerim wanted to remain positive they did. Her next decision after they got out would be based on Yeojin’s response.

 **Choerry (12:15 p.m.):** _U guys got out?_

 **Lentil Bean (12:16 p.m.):** _Yeah. Just managed to slip past the strangers and we’re now hiding in the woods._

 **Choerry (12:17 p.m.):** _Meet @ Haseul’s place. Dont w8 4 us._

 **Lentil Bean (12:17 p.m.):** _K._

Yerim then turns to Hyejoo. Both nod, their escape route already mapped out.

“You ready?”

“Let’s rock.”

-

Siyeon hears the sound of something snapping. Glancing outside a paneless window, she catches sight of two figures, who looked like they could be college aged, hastily scrambling over the wall, using the metal bars of the fencing in the gaps between the light blocks as a ladder.

“Hey Minji, I found your thieves!”

Minji, the one with the purple hair, turns around to look, then jumps through an open window in hot pursuit, Siyeon following behind, nearly tripping as she scrambles to her feet after vaulting over the window.

The one with the suspiciously bulging backpack stares, eyes wide at the sight of Minji and Siyeon approaching quickly then scrambles over the fence, her friend helping her by pulling her over the fence.

“Well shit. They got away.”

Minji pauses, catching her breath before speaking in between huffs.

“Get… Get Yoohyeon. We’ll scour the woods.”

-

Navigating the woods was easy enough. With the lack of undergrowth, locating the main road was laughably straightforward. Yerim and Hyejoo were fortunate in the fact that a car happened to be passing by and was willing to stop when flagged down. The driver does not ask any questions when offered a stack of crumpled banknotes, driving straight towards the café owned by Haseul, Yeojin’s older sister.

They were long gone by the time Siyeon, Yoohyeon and Minji started their sweep of the woods.

-

“Seems like they got away.” Siyeon shakes her head, running a hand through her fringe to wipe away the forming beads of sweat.

“Outsmarted by a couple of schoolgirls.” The one named Yoohyeon shakes her head, releasing a soft chuckle.

Minji sighs, planting her face in her palm.

“We failed big time. The fools have no idea what they’re getting themselves into by running off with the Necronomicon and Cthulhu's idol.”

“What now, Archmage?”

“Call up Dami and Gahyeon, Get one of them to revive our resident Empress. We’re gonna need all 7 of us to fix this major screw-up.”


	3. Chapter 3

Haseul looks up as the bell above the door rings. It doesn’t take her long to guess that her younger sister, Yeojin had arrived with her friends. Haseul’s little café at the other edge of town was often a favourite haunt of Yeojin and her college mates.

Haseul raises an eyebrow at the sight of a weary looking Yeojin and the other three members of her little ‘squad’, drenched in sweat with what looked like dust and remnants of cobwebs on their clothes.

Shaking her head as she chuckles to herself, Haseul walks over, wondering just what kind of trouble her younger sister got into as she sets down four steaming mugs of coffee in front of the four girls.

“Went urbexing and got chased off by security again?”

“Yes.” Yeojin’s response is both prompt and blunt, while Hyejoo and Chaewon nod in unison, Yerim mouthing out ‘it was just one time!’

“Where?”

“Uhh… that old archaeologist’s mansion on the north end.” Yeojin takes a sip of her coffee, immediately regretting it as her tongue and throat are scalded. Chaewon and Hyejoo snicker, Yeojin shooting them a death glare after.

“Dr Jeong’s mansion? Wasn’t that sealed up after he died? You know, if you want places to scope out, you should’ve come to me instead.” Haseul shakes her head. “I swear you four are gonna get in serious trouble at some point being this reckless. So what did you discover in there?”

Yerim casually slips out the book she nabbed from the safe, along with the idol, to which Haseul raises an eyebrow. The symbols on the book and on the idol’s based looked extremely familiar. Her close friend Jinsoul, who happened to be the quartet’s Occultism professor, had being doing some research on what she described as ‘eldritch deities’, so-called Great Old Ones, beings worshipped by humankind before the world’s major religions had sprung up.

Jnsoul spoke a lot about it, to the point where it was all Haseul could hear from her mostly.

 _“You do realize you’re turning into one of those nutty scientist types, right? With how deep you’re getting into this.”_ Haseul had said once, to which Jinsoul replied with a mere grin before turning back towards her growing pile of notes.

“You should give your Professor Jung a call. Last time I spoke to her, she was also doing research on something similar to what you guys got. Call her up. I’m sure you four and her have a lot to talk about now.” Haseul shakes her head, a slight grin crossing her lips at the thought of the girls and Jinsoul talking about nothing else but the book and the idol and what ever eldritch abominations both were meant to represent. “Anyways, I’ll leave you four be. I’ll be in the back if anyone needs me.”

To which Yeojin nods, as Yerim then starts dumping out the contents of her backpack on to the table, the other three girls digging into the files as Haseul slips back behind the bar and into the kitchen.

-

No one notices the hooded figure casually vaulting over a low section of the wall surrounding the museum, smack dab in the centre of town. Given that night was already falling, the intruder would only have security to deal with.

With the various security cameras and spotlights flooding the front and side façades, the figure has to rely on pure chance to avoid being spotted by the guards at the entrance and the adjacent parking lot.

The intruder dives behind a tree as her phone vibrates, indicating a call. She grits her teeth, biting back her irritation as she answers the call, revealing locks of cropped, blue hair.

“Hey Dami. You there yet? Sorry, but our dear Archmage made me call you.”

“Yes. I’m still trying to find a way in. I’ll call you back once I’m in.” Dami’s words come out in a hushed whisper before abruptly hanging up.

She scans the area, looking for a part of the building that was covered in shadows. Being the Ordo Arcana’s resident mage with the powers of darkness as her element, sneaking around was ridiculously easy for Dami with her shadow manipulation abilities. But with almost half the building being lit up, merging with the shadows to sneak in would be difficult, if not impossible.

However, it doesn’t take Dami long to find a so-called ‘blindspot’ in beween the spotlights, where a small section of the building’s façade was hidden in the dark, with a vent of some sort conveniently located right above a window, with the shadows reaching the ground.

Dami hears the sounds of footsteps, indicating a guard (or two, she couldn’t tell), was approaching. And then she sees the white beam of light from someone’s flashlight.

There would be only 30 seconds at least before the guard turned the corner. Dami sprints, running right into the shadowed area.

The guard would have heard her running by now but that does not matter to the mage. Dami makes a fist out of her left hand, extending the middle and index fingers while quickly wrapping the digits from her right hand around them, forming a hand seal that would activate the mage’s ability to meld with the shadows. Immediately her form is engulfed by expanding tendrils formed from the shadows surrounding her.

Within seconds, the mage’s body dematerializes into a black wisp of shadow, which drifts upwards, her now-shapeless form easily slipping in between the grilles of the vent.

By the time the guard arrived at what he thought was the source of the noise, there was no trace of the mage, leaving the unfortunate guard scratching his head, wondering if he was hearing things.

-

The hours had passed as the quartet dug into the files that Yerim had compiled, the word ‘Cthulhu’ stamped on each folder in black ink that had faded to a rather odd shade of purple.

“This Cthulhu thing, it seems to go back much further than all the major religions.” Chaewon is the first to speak up, after browsing through a file marked CTHULHU CULT.

_“...They worshipped, so they said, the Great Old Ones who lived ages before there were any men, and who came to the young world out of the sky. Those Old Ones were gone now, inside the earth and under the sea; but their dead bodies had told their secrets in dreams to the first men, who formed a cult which had never died. This was that cult, and the prisoners said it had always existed and always would exist, hidden in distant wastes and dark places all over the world until the time when the great priest Cthulhu, from his dark house in the mighty city of R'lyeh under the waters, should rise and bring the earth again beneath his sway…”_

Thus went the written report of a police officer, who had led a crackdown on one offshoot of the cult of Cthulhu based in New Orleans.

“Holy crap...” Yeojin mutters, while Yerim and Hyejoo look out for Haseul, who usually had a habit of appearing whenever Yeojin cussed, intentionally or not. Yeojin had managed to dig out a yellowed, wrinkled sheet of paper, with the same alien hieroglyphs etched into the base of the idol of the Great Old One.

The paper consisted mostly of notes, with each symbol transliterated into words that sounded like pure gibberish to the four girls. Each hieroglyph corresponded to a particular vowel or consonant, written in archaic cursive script. Most of the note was incomplete however, with the beginning and middle of the page being perfectly legible, but everything after the middle grew more and more illegible, the writings becoming more and more scrawled.

By the time the end of the page was reached, the writings were little more than randomly scribbled squiggly lines. It was as if the author of the notes had some sort of nervous or physical breakdown halfway through the writing process.

“Well, looks like decoding the hieroglyphs are gonna be…difficult. The transliteration work isn’t finished.” Yerim shakes her head, sighing while Chaewon digs through the rest of the notes.

A note from the original compiler of the files was found among the jumble, in an unmarked folder, which had definitely been the archaeologist’s memoirs. Through the lines of scrawled text on the note, Hyejoo makes out that it’s an account of dreams experienced by the aforementioned archaeologist. She could make out descriptions of an alien city.

“Haseul did say Proffessor Jung was also doing research into this. Maybe someone should give her a call?”

As if on cue, Haseul interrupts before anyone can reply.

“Sorry girls, but it’s closing time. You can come back tomorrow though.”

To which the group glances at their watches, before scrambling to clean up the pile of folders and papers on the desk. The quartet had gotten too caught up reading all the notes, failing to notice the hours slipping by.

Hyejoo and Yerim would look through the Necronomicon and the rest of the files, with Chaewon agreeing to text Professor Jung in the morning.

Yeojin stays behind to help her older sister close down the café after the rest of the squad leaves.

-

Dami finds it almost hilarious at how breaking and entering into places with high levels of security is made ridiculously easy through the (ab)use of her shadow manipulation abilities. Her now-formless self drifts through the ducts, linking the various vents in the building. The various ducts vary in diameter, from a meter across to a mere two inches. But with the mage’s physical form melded into the shadows, her body now dematerialized into a formless dark wisp, she wouldn’t have to worry about getting stuck. Or making any sort of noise.

In the hours before Dami left, Archmage Minji had given her a map of the museum itself. Dami’s target was one of the storage rooms in the basement, where some artifacts of the Han Dynasty had been leased for a display that was to be set up next to a Gojeoson era exhibit that itself was to be opened up the following week.

Originally entombed somewhere in Xi’an, the person that Minji had referred to as the Empress and assigned Dami to seek out was reburied in a nondescript location near Shenzen in the 1920’s. Unfortunately, in the years that followed, a team of archaeologists had uncovered the grave site in the 90’s before the Ordo Arcana could secure it.

Locating the Empress was easy enough through a paid informant. The aforementioned Empress, who happened to be the Ordo Arcana’s resident mage of light was sealed away, the vessel containing her remains at first kept somewhere in Shanghai, which was then shipped over to their current location. Due to various circumstances regarding security and the various risks involved with spiriting their fellow mage out of China, all that the remaining 6 mages of the Ordo Arcana could do was wait for an opportunity, which presented itself with the remains of their fellow mage being leased for the Han dynasty display.

Dami glides along, peering through every vent on the way (as her shadowmeld ability granted her the power to see anything and everything around her at will), following the directions she had memorized on the way in on the map Minji had given.

Finding the correct room where the Empress’s remains were didn’t take that long, and so the mage’s shadow form seeps out from the grilles, the wisps of shadow slowly coalescing into her human form.

Remaining in the shadows, the mage gets to work, giving all the artifacts in the room a once over, searching for the vessel with her fellow mage’s remains. Dami holds out one out of two necklaces she’s wearing, the blood red gem starting to glow as the soul inside it stirs to life.

Dami’s gaze falls over the various Han dynasty artifacts, most of which she’d seen for herself during the actual Han dynasty itself. Statues, pottery, glassware, a row of bronze and jade figures, each figure sculpted in the image of the Empress herself. Having befriended the empress for over a millenia, Dami had always thought that the sculptures never did her friend’s features proper justice.

Contacting the Empress herself was even easier than sneaking in. All that the mage of darkess would have to do to speak to her was to bring the Empress’s soul stone within a certain distance of her remains. And the Empress’s resting place was nearby, judging from how bright it was glowing.

 _“Is that you, Dami? It’s been decades. The stars have aligned properly after the last time I walked the Earth. How long has it been? A century?”_ A voice whispers in the back of the mage’s mind.

_“Indeed it has been a century. I’m sorry we couldn’t get to you sooner, Dong. Given how much the world has changed since the day we had to leave you behind, spiriting your body…or what’s left of it away from where we left you was easier said than done.”_

A chuckle, before the disembodied voice of the Empress responds.

_“Understandable. Also… what brings you to seek me out on short notice?”_

_“Do you remember the Necronomicon? A group of young fools stole it from its current hiding place along with the idol of Cthulhu. Archmage wants us to find it and recover it. I’ll explain the rest later.”_

And then the Empress mutters back an acknowledgement before falling silent, Dami quickly typing out a text to Yoohyeon.

The mage uses the glow of the Empress’s soul stone as a guide, stopping at a statue as the blood red gem is awash in a brilliant glow. This is definitely the statue, which Dami confirms a moment later, reaching for an ornate knife, etched with several arcane symbols on its blade, then striking the face of the statue with enough force to crack open the terracotta shell.

Dami peels off the shards, exposing a mummified, bandaged face underneath. She then places the stone in a depression on the statue’s chest before bringing the blade of her knife to her palm, almost casually slashing sideways.

As the thin red line starts to well with blood, Dami squeezes her palm with her other hand, letting the blood well up even more before flinging a literal splash of blood at the exposed face.

Immediately the body twitches before convulsing. Eyes behind the bandage open as the body’s movements cause the terracotta shell to crack and flake off. The Ordo Arcana’s mage of light steps forwards, now free of her vessel after a century of slumber, her breaths coming out in rasps.

Without a word, Dami hands her hooded coat over to the now-revived Handong, who casually slips the garment over her haggard, bandaged form before stretching, her joints, or what was left of them, cracking and popping.

“After a century of being a statue, I’ll be honest… everything’s gone really stiff.” Handong laughs, her voice coming out in rasps before pulling the hood low enough to conceal her features in its shadow. “I look like a real mess, don’t I?”

“That’s… a pretty big understatement. But we’ll worry about that later. Right now, we need to get out of here.”

Handong nods, standing as close as she can, one hand on Dami’s shoulder as Dami forms her hand seals, the shadows surrounding, then engulfing both their forms, both Dami and Handong’s forms melding into the shadows after, right as the doorknob to the storage room turns.

-

Yerim and Hyejoo flip through the Necronomicon’s pages, the original note of transliterated hieroglyphs at their side, while another note which was revised, lay in Yerim’s left hand as a small circle of candles surrounding both girls flicker.

“I still can’t believe we actually stole this thing…” Hyejoo shakes her head, to which Yerim shrugs.

“Hey I swear I was just going to borrow it.”

“And what? Just walk up to one of those three from earlier and just hand it back to them?”

Yerim shoots Hyejoo a glare.

“You got me. But anyways. According to the notes, this Necronomicon is a grimore of sorts. Allegedly, one can summon a whole pantheon of eldritch beings that the notes refer to as the ‘Great Old Ones’. This Cthulhu, apparently is one such Great Old one.”

Hyejoo’s starting to feel a pang of nervousness at the mention of the Great Old Ones. The Ordo Arcana had gone through quite a bit of trouble to keep the Necronomicon sealed with the locks bearing the signs of their seven elements. Whatever these Great Old Ones were, rhey would have had to be a special kind of evil or danger.

But then curiosity, an unwillingness to put a damper on Yerim’s enthusiasm and some strange compulsion to look even deeper into the book’s contents kills that thought.

“So, according to what I managed to get off of the notes while rewriting, I think I managed to piece together one of the incantations on this page…”

Yerim opens up the page of the Necronomicon with the image of the figure that was immortalized in the form of that sculpture made from alien obsidian.

There wasn’t enough to translate every word that was on the page, but there was enough material to warrant a complete translation of a select few phrases along with a pronounciation guide.

Both girls hesitate, giving each other a look with uncertainty written all over it.

“You sure you want to do this? Who knows what would happen…” Hyejoo asks, breaking the sudden silence.

“We’ve went through all that trouble to get this book… might as well do it.” Yerim draws in a breath.

Another pause. Reading from the book could lead to summoning one of the eldritch abominations being brought back into the world, or nothing could happen at all.

There would be really only one way to find out.

Both Yerim and Hyejoo nod at each other, both feeling that they’ve gone too far to stop now.

“Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn! Ph'nglui mglw'nfah Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!” Yerim chants out, reading off the hastily scribbled transliteration of the text under the tentacle-headed abomination’s picture.

“Wait…somehow that doesn’t sound right. Maybe some of the g’s are supposed to be silent, like in ‘sign’…” Hyejoo grabs the note after, quickly editing out Yerim’s transliteration. “So I guess it’s supposed to be pronounced as ‘ia, ia, Cthulu fhtahn, feng-lui muh-lewnfah, Cthulhu re-leyeh wuh-gah-nahl, fhtahn’.”

Yerim cocks an eyebrow, then shrugs after.

“I’m not gonna ask how you suddenly know the hypothetical correct pronounciation but… okay.”

And then Yerim attempts the chant again, Hyejoo joining in, forming a chorus of sorts as they repeat the phrase over and over.

_Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn! Ph'nglui mglw'nfah Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!_

Hyejoo’s heart skips a beat as she waits. And waits.

And then nothing happens… at first.

As both girls catch their breath, a force throws both of them backwards as the book levitates, floating a good two feet off the ground.

The room suddenly feels a few degrees colder as the candles blow out, the text and illustrations on the open pages flashing in a bright greenish glow. Immediately, both girls realize why the Ordo Arcana had gone through such lengths to keep the Necronomicon sealed away.

Yerim and Hyejoo watch, frozen in shock as the seam between the opened pages glow with a more brilliant shade of green, the line of green light suddenly growing wider and wider, as if a portal of sorts was beginning to open through the book.

“Shit… this was a bad idea.” Yerim mutters, unconsciously letting a cuss word slip before scrambling to her feet.

“We have to close the book! Help me with this!” Hyejoo leaps up, almost pouncing on the book, bringing it back to the ground, attempting to close the book.

Despite being the strongest member of the quartet, some unknown force resists Hyejoo’s attempt to force the open pages together.

In the background, both Yerim and Hyejoo can hear some alien language, similar to the language that the chants were written in, the voices emanating as a chorus of hushed whispers, while water droplets begin to drip from the glowing seam between the pages, each drop giving off the briny scent of the sea.

It takes a lot of effort, but right before the drizzle of water starts to turn into a torrent, both girls manage to force the book closed, Hyejoo forcing it to stay shut as Yerim scrambles in a drawer for a roll of duct tape and a boxcutter, taping the book closed after.

The book, through the same unknown force that kept the pages forced open, attempts to force itself out of Hyejoo’s grip, before seemingly giving up, dropping itself at her feet.

Both Yerim and Hyejoo collapse, Hyejoo leaning against the bed while Yerim drops to a sitting position.

“Did- did we do it…?” Yerim asks, her voice strained with shock and fatigue.

“I don’t know. We’ll have to see Proffessor Jung tomorrow.” Hyejoo slumps back, panting, her arms sore from the strain of closing the book.

Yerim glances at the book, immediately regretting reading from it. Part of her wanted to hope that they managed to reseal what ever had attempted to enter through the book, but part of here also knew that they may have only delayed the inevitable.

Not wanting to think about it further, Yerim climbs up to her side of the bed, pulling the sheets over herself, while a snore confirms to her that Hyejoo had already fallen asleep, on the floor, of all places.

Yerim makes up her mind to go straight to their Proffessor tomorrow, hoping that she’d be able to help them out of the potential hole she and Hyejoo had dug themselves (and by extension, Yeojin and Chaewon) into.

  
  



	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/NI must apologise for the sudden slowdown in updating and being unable to complete this in time for Spooktober. Life... just got in the way. Personal issues piling up and just being tired of life in general got in the way of things and I just lost motivation and inspiration for a long time, struggling with writer's block as a result. 
> 
> However, while I couldn't complete this for Spooktober, I'm still pushing on, determined to see this and my other works through to the very end. I just ask to bear with me, this fic will be finished one way or another. 

Minji jolts with a gasp, blinking a few times as the gold needle in her fingers, itself dipped in her own blood suddenly sinks a little too deep into Handong’s flesh. Yoohyeon’s caught by surprise by Minji’s sudden reaction, but manages to regain enough composure to not drop the bowl filled with the Archmage’s own blood.

“H-hey I know I can’t feel pain but not so hard, please!” Handong winces, feeling the point sink even deeper into her arm, her expression hidden by the mass of bandages covering her face. “Also this would be easier if you just shot me up with your blood instead of using me as an acupuncture practice dummy.”

“Ah crap… sorry about that. I-I just felt a great disturbance. Also do we look like we carry syringes here?” 

“What kind of disturbance?” Yoohyeon asks, setting the blood-filled bowl on to the table next to the trio while Handong rolls her eyes behind the bandages covering her face.

Minji pauses, dipping another gold needle into the blood, before gently piercing, then inserting it into Handong’s other arm. “Like the very veil of reality itself tore open. The fools read from the book. And as most of the poor fools who got their hands on the Necronomicon itself, they, in the kind of foolishness induced by curiosity, read aloud from it.” Minji shakes her head. “Which means we need to find the book, and burn it before whichever Great Old One they summoned fully reawakens.”

“What about the fools who stole it?” Yoohyeon asks, after a short pause.

“We need to find them first. Once Dong’s back to normal, she, Bora and Dami will go find them. I want you to put your cracking skills to the test. See if you can tap into emails going in and around the college. Word’s been going around that one professor there’s been digging a bit too deep into the occult and is doing research into the Great Old Ones. If my hunch is right, the four thieves who most likely are studying there, will seek that professor out. Gahyeon will help you on this.”

“So when are we doing this?” Handong asks, deciding to break the ensuing silence.

“Tomorrow.”

-

Hyejoo finds herself face down on a pavement, of dark grey cobblestone, mottled with green moss that gave off a scent of rotting seaweed. Hyejoo doesn’t know or remember how she got here, but the dazed girl’s instincts tell her to find her bearings first, then find a way out of wherever the hell she was.

Standing up, Hyejoo feels as if someone had picked her up and tossed her straight into an M.C. Escher painting. The very cobblestone street she finds herself standing on, somehow seemed to have sprouted in literally every direction, along with various staircases that seemed to lead literally anywhere and everywhere. Buildings, or what could be called buildings also seemed to sprout in literally every direction, their designs alien, nearly physically impossible in geometry and architecture, to the point where it seemed some were literally floating in mid air, at physically impossible angles.

Just glancing around made Hyejoo’s head spin, along with her eyes beginning to water, with the strong sea-scent doing little to relieve her growing nausea. There was no sky that could be seen through the near-labyrinthian area she was in, yet somehow rain managed to drizzle down from somewhere while a weak, pale green glow emanated from the gaps between the structures.

Everything within Hyejoo’s field of vision was apparently composed out of the same alien obsidian as the idol of Cthulhu, which was in her and Yerim’s room, possibly hundreds of miles from the labyrinth she was trapped in. Each surface had the same alien hieroglyphs that dotted the pages of the Necronomicon.

She was in some kind of city or urban area, if one could call it as such, which she deduced was related somehow to the eldritch beings in the Necronomicon.

Had the book somehow sucked her in? Had she been dragged here?

Hyejoo’s questions remain unanswered, as in a shard of jet black glass, she catches a glimpse of a winged creature whose face ended in a bunch of tentacles. Her instincts kicking in, Hyejoo runs as she hears a fluttering sound behind her, along with the chattering of some alien voice. Out of the corner of her eye, she makes out the form of some chimeraic creature. Wasp-like in form, but with bat wings, and masses of tentacles from where the creature’s jaw and ‘limbs’ would be.

Hyejoo runs on.

And runs.

And runs.

Hyejoo doesn’t know how long she’s been running or where she’s running to, but she keeps on running, her head already starting to pound just from percieving the labyrinthine city’s sheer alien-ness, as if her brain was struggling to process it all.

She stumbles a few times, tripped up by random bits of masonry whose angles should be acute, but behaved as if they were obtuse, and vice versa. Her pursuer, clearly a denizen of this labyrinth was pretty much undeterred.

And then suddenly Hyejoo feels herself falling, as if her foot was somehow swallowed by something, tripping over.

Hyejoo feels herself falling. And falling.

-

She finds herself suddenly awake on her side of the bed, exactly a minute before the alarm goes off.

Yerim stirs, awoken by Hyejoo’s jolting, right as the alarm rings. Blinking, Yerim turns to see a seemingly dazed Hyejoo staring off into space.

“You alright there?”

To which Hyejoo blankly nods. “Yeah…. Had some weird-ass dream. I’ll tell you all about it later.”

Not wanting to waste any time by pushing Hyejoo to go into detail, Yerim merely nods before running off to the bathroom. Their alarms were set to 7:30. Class was at 9 but with campus being on the other end of town it was in both Hyejoo and Yerim’s best interest to get out of the house as early as they could to catch the 8 o’clock bus or end up facing a three hour walk to campus.

The next two hours run by in a blur, Hyejoo seemingly in a constant state of half-sleep, with four cups of extra strong coffee doing little to break her out of her fatigue.

Hyejoo’s thankful she’s seated in the back of the class, with Yerim in front of her, Chaewon and Yeojin to her left and right respectively. Yeojin’s focus is solely on their professor in front of the class, while Chaewon and Yerim both sneak glances at Hyejoo, who seemed to be just about to doze off at any second.

It wasn’t until lunch break, that Hyejoo finally breaks out of her state of half-sleep, courtesy of a can of Monster that Yeojin bought off of Haseul before showing up to campus.

“You’ve been looking like you’re about to pass out all day long...” Yeojin shakes her head, Hyejoo merely shrugging before downing half the can in a single swig.

“Honestly? My head’s been spinning all day, ever since I got on the bus.”

“This could be connected to that dream you had.” Yerim interjects, earning a raised eyebrow from Chaewon.”

“Dream? What kind of dream?”

“It’s… like I was in someone’s acid trip. I was in this labyrinth-like place, with those weird-ass hieroglyphs literally all over the place.”

“You too huh?” Yerim speaks up, as all eyes turn towards her. “Was this labyrinth filled with all sorts of weirdly angled architecture that just looked and felt… wrong?”

Hyejoo nods. Yerim sighs in response

“I’ve been having weird flashes of a place similar to the one from your dream ever since I woke up this morning. Been trying to just ignore it but the images just seem to get clearer and more vivid each time.”

“This could be connected with the book…” Chaewon slides over a scrapbook, filled with more newspaper clippings and final testaments of people, who managed to get their hands on the Necronomicon itself or one of its uncensored copies. “You didn’t read from it aloud… right?”

The panicked look Hyejoo and Yerim shoot each other is enough to answer that query.

“No… No way. Do you realise how much shit we’re gonna be in?” Chaewon shakes her head, Yerim opening up the scrapbook after, going silent.

“Well… something did try to get out but we managed to close the book. That should’ve solved it. Right…?”

To which Chaewon facepalms in reply.

There were several allusions to outbreaks of mass hysteria in the spring and summer of 1925, mostly along the New England coast, the Caribbean and on one island in what was then known as Malaya, coinciding with the appearance of a copy of the Necronomicon in each instance.

And in each instance, someone had inadvertently read aloud from the book, ending up with the reader falling into a vaguely described state of hysteria not long after. Some were hauled off to asylums, some committed suicide and some just literally disappeared off the face of the Earth.

Chaewon was now under the impression that the owner of the mansion they broke into and stole their copy of the Necronomicon from had met his end, either with his mind broken by whatever eldritch horror he had accidentally (or intentionally) summoned or by the hands of someone for whatever reason.

One other note mentioned the Ordo Arcana. That sorcerers’ order that the girls’ Professor Jung had mentioned in one of her occultism classes. According to the writer, the Ordo Arcana consisted of a worldwide network of mages, mostly dedicating themselves to keeping eldritch threats out of the world.

Most of the information that Chaewon and Yeojin could find on the Ordo Arcana was incomplete, mostly wiped from the history books. Whatever online sources they found was mostly hearsay, ancedotes and shared opinions. What the sources all agreed on however, was that the Ordo Arcana was allegedly willing to ‘silence’ anyone that had come into contact with certain grimoires. The Necronomicon included.

And with the revelation that the order was very much alive and well, the quartet suddenly falls silent as it dawned on them just how screwed they were, with the threat of insanity courtesy of the Necronomicon’s eldritch power coupled with the threat of murder at the hands of the Ordo Arcana.

“Professor Jung’s other class should be done now. Let’s go see her. Like right freaking now.”

-

Unbeknownst to the quartet, a fifth guest had been eavesdropping on their conversation the entire time. Unseen, the creature had crawled out one of the many vents that dotted the campus, spawned through a hole in reality that it had rended at will. Through standing orders, courtesy of its Master, the Great Priest Cthulhu, the creature, one of His many star-spawns would have to observe the quartet.

The brown-haired one and the black-haired one were the ones that read aloud from the book, rousing the Great Priest. While awaiting its Master to fully awaken, the creature, as it had done to readers of the book that had yet to fall into insanity, it was to seize one or both of them, in the moment when they would be alone, seperated from their friends, in order for one or both to serve as a flesh sacrifice to the Great Priest. If it only managed to seize one, the other would serve as the Master’s vessel on Earth, spreading His word, convincing others to bow to His whims. The abductee would then be replaced with a copy as to not draw further suspicion.

Using various mirrors and bodies of water to move around, the creature silently observes the quartet’s every move, listening to every word, their language completely alien to it, as its own language was to the humans. Making a move now would draw too much attention so the creature satisfies itself with waiting and observing. Perhaps now was as good a time as any to learn more about these beings that were daring enough to reawaken the Great Priest. If itself could not complete its objective, there were more of its ‘siblings’, if these creatures could be called as such, willing to leap through the immaterium that seperated their sunken city under the Earth’s waters from the surface, to help it.

-

Jinsoul looks up from her laptop, catching sight of her four students before turning back towards the screen, her fingers continuing to type out a few more sentences before she then gets up, as Yerim places a book on her desk. Said book was wrapped up in two layers of cling film, with duct tape binding the whole thing together.

“So, what brings you here, and what’s this you brought me?”

The quartet opens their mouths in sync, before glancing at each other, setting the story straight in their heads before wordlessly deciding to let Yerim speak first.

“Well uhh. We found something you might be interested in.” Yerim slides the wrapped up book over to Jinsoul.

“Is this… No way. The Necronomicon. How did you get this?” Jinsoul raises an eyebrow, cutting open the book’s tape and wrapping, running her fingers over the embossed lettering on its black leather cover.

“We found it while urbexing.” Hyejoo shrugs, earning a look from the other three girls. Yerim makes an attempt to nudge her friend but then decides against it. No one would believe a word on how they came across the book anyways, even if it was the truth.

“Is that so? It’s in remarkable condition…” Jinsoul slices open the book’s improvised wrapping. Right as she reaches the strap, someone gasps. Jinsoul looks up, catching the four girls avoiding her gaze.

Hyejoo’s breath hitches as their proffessor starts to open the pages of the book. Yerim attempts to make a move to stop Jinsoul, only for Hyejoo to grab her hand, shaking her head, mouthing a ‘no’.

Chaewon and Yeojin merely stare, Chaewon’s pounding heart being the only thing both of them hear as Jinsoul then flips through the pages.

It takes a few minutes for the quartet to collectively relax, when nothing happens. Perhaps whatever it was that Hyejoo and Yerim accidentally summoned had been forced back into whatever otherworldly dimension it came from?

“Interesting… there’s a number of differences in the text of your copy of the Necronomicon and mine. Perhaps this one’s an earlier edition from a different time period? Interesting.” Jinsoul closes the book, apparently unaffected by its eldritch power. Jinsoul goes on to explain that indeed many people had read from the Necronomicon and had their minds broken from whatever power it held.

“But then, there is a way to actually read the book without summoning a Great Old One or losing your mind…” Jinsoul goes on to explain that the book had to be read in a certain pace, and not one word has to be read aloud. Looking at the drawings for too long would also lead into the start of madness as the images would somehow burn themselves into the mind’s eye of the reader.

Not wanting to hear more and wanting to low-key change the subject, Yerim fishes in her pocket for one of the many locks she had found at the mansion.

“We found this next to the book.” What spilled from Yerim’s lips is technically a half truth. Not that Jinsoul had to know.

“The Ordo Arcana’s symbol. There should be seven of these, each packing the emblem of the order’s magic elements. Probably long gone by the time you found this and the book. The order would use an 8-lock combination to seal away things they considered forbidden or especially dangerous.”

Jinsoul doesn’t notice the nervous shifting amongst the four girls as she continues.

“Well, the order’s long gone by now.” To which Yerim and Hyejoo gulp., shooting panicked glances at each other. “Which is a good thing. Because according to what I’ve confirmed, the Order had managed to get a whole bunch of books and grimoires erased from the history books, the Necronomicon included.”

Hyejoo feels the claws of fear gripping her chest with each word.

“The order had a rather nasty habit of ensuring all knowledge of everything they considered forbidden, remained forgotten. Book burnings, historic revisionism, purging of archives, you name it, they did it. Even to the point of murdering people they thought possessed forbidden knowledge…”

Yerim and Hyejoo don’t hear the rest of their Professor’s speech, already overtaken with fear from the very real threat of murder or insanity, whichever came first.

-

No one notices a pair of eyes staring back at them from the vents, glowing a faint green. The Great Priest’s spawn had no concept of patience or impatience, only driven by instinct to serve its master’s orders. Humans were indeed such interesting things, and the creature could not understand why so many of them that did not believe would descend into near hysteric fits of madness whenever the Master reached out to them.

The tall, black haired human at her desk was to be left alone, as the Master didn’t consider her to be of any particular importance. The creature would continue to observe the quartet, particularly the two that had read from the book and awakened the Master.

-

At first, all within the city beneath the Earth’s waters lay still. Then over the course of the past two days, the moss-encrusted stones vibrate with the rumbling of something stirring. In the centre of the city, whose environment, architecture and very presence was so alien to the dwellers of the surface fathoms above, a scaled, slime encrusted appendage that could just be described as a hand reaches up, as if to grasp at the heavens.

Then a pair of obsidian eyes flutter awake, flashing a faint red as the rest of the Great Old One stirs to life, drawing in a breath that sounded like hurricane’s gust as the Great Old One, known to the surface dwellers gets up, His leathery wings spreading as He stretches his limbs, feeling somewhat stiff after eons of slumber.

The Thing of the idols, the green, sticky spawn of the stars, had awaked to claim his own. The stars were right again, and what an age-old cult had failed to do by design, a squad of college kids had done by pure accident.

The great Cthulhu was loose again, and ravening to reclaim the surface world for Himself.


End file.
